Tower Cranes Grow to New Heights
Within the tower crane industry, the 1950s featured many significant milestones in tower crane design and development. There were a variety of manufacturers were starting to make more bottom slewing cranes which had telescoping mast. These kinds of machinery dominated the construction market for both apartment block and office construction. Lots of of the leading tower crane manufacturers discarded the use of cantilever jib designs. In its place, they made the switch to luffing jibs and eventually, utilizing luffing jibs became the standard method.
Within Europe, there were major improvements being made in the design and development of tower cranes. Usually, construction sites were tight places. Depending upon rail systems to move several tower cranes, ended up being too expensive and difficult. Some manufacturers were offering saddle jib cranes which had hook heights of 80 meters or 262 feet. These cranes were equipped with self-climbing mechanisms that allowed parts of mast to be inserted into the crane so that it can grow along with the structures it was constructing upwards.
These particular cranes have long jibs and can cover a bigger work area. All of these developments led to the practice of building and anchoring cranes in a building's lift shaft. After that, this is the technique that became the industry standard.
The main focus on tower crane design and development from the 1960s started on covering a higher load moment, covering a larger job radius, faster erection strategies, climbing mechanisms and technology, and new control systems. Furthermore, focus was spent on faster erection strategies with the most significant developments being made in the drive technology department, among other things.